Cambridge honour for Sir Edgar Speyer, who bankrolled Captain Scott’s expeditions to the Antarctic - but was branded a spy

Without him, there would be no London Underground, no Proms concerts, no expeditions to the Antarctic by Captain Scott, and no Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge - but few people have ever heard of him.

The key role of the German-born banker Sir Edgar Speyer a century ago in bankrolling Scott’s expeditions to the frozen wastes is finally to be applauded - with a special plaque at the institute dedicated to his memory.

Experts say the honour is intended to right one of the ‘great wrongs’ of the First World War, in which Sir Edgar was vilified as a traitor and spy, and forced into exile.

Prof Tony Lentin, a senior member of Wolfson College and author of a book about the banker, said: “Speyer personally put up the £5,000 necessary to pay for sending out a ship to rescue Scott and his companions when their ship, the Discovery, was stuck in the polar ice on their first expedition. Speyer became treasurer of the British Antarctic Expedition in 1909 and raised funds for the second expedition.

“It is good that a memorial will be placed at the Scott Polar dedicated to an inspirational man who I believe has unjustly been airbrushed out of British history.”

In a last poignant letter to Speyer on March 16, 1912 Scott told his benefactor: ‘I thank you a thousand times for your help and support. We have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen. I regret only for the women we leave behind.’ Speyer then helped to fundraise for the dependents of the explorers and for what later became the research institute.

Sir Edgar was the founder and chairman of the company which financed the construction of the deep-level tubes and the electrification and expansion of the London Underground. He also philanthropically funded medical research, and pumped money into the Proms when the musical concerts faced financial ruin.

But the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 exposed him to angry anti-German feeling. He was accused of signalling to German submarines from his North Norfolk home. Hounded out of the country and forced into exile in the United States, he, his wife Leonora, and their British-born children, were all stripped of their British citizenship.

The plaque will be unveiled in October by David Wilson, great-nephew of Edward Wilson, who died with Scott and his companions in 1912.

Dr Wilson said: “What happened to Speyer was one of the great wrongs through the Great War. It is good to put that right in its centenary by acknowledging his support for Scott.”